The New Christians

Christianity21 — It’s All Over but the Shouting

Due to snow in the Twin Cities, several C21 participants got held over for another night here, allowing us to revel in the glories of the gathering for another day. But today holds a couple more airport runs, some packing, and beginning to decide what’s next for JoPa.

At Jay Bakker’s request, I will be posting about the event, at length, in the next couple days. Until then, enjoy the images of Courtney Perry:

So true Paul, so true! It was somewhat a surprising delight to see the 60-70+ with such a clear presence. One wonders if the expression of this voice comes out of a latent desire – and even deep need – to see necessary shifts so that God’s heart for the world is realized. I would love to hear more from these collective voices of experience, and hope that the welcome is always as beautiful as it was at C21 for all!

No one thought Emergent was just a bunch of 20 year old white guys. Rather that Emergent was overrated in influence, reach, and number.
While I am sure the gathering at Christianity 21 was diverse, I bet the attendence was quite sparse.

who cares about the size of emergent or the attendance at an event?
i don’t know what the attendance was a C21, but i do know economically (and for a while now) it hasn’t made sense for a lot of groups to do the larger scale gatherings/conferences.
regardless, such comments are part of the “petty” category…in the same class as comments about choice of eyewear, lattes, and all manner of adiaphora never claimed or asserted by emergent. Strawmen at best, outright lies, at worst.
it’s clear that this gathering was significant for its participants, an innovative move in the world of Christian conferences.
Why would anyone want to crap on that?
Seriously.

Hey Larry,
I think Jesus intended for those 12 to go forth and make disciples. To bear fruit and see people come to know Jesus.
So while emergents continue to hold sparse gatherings that ruminate on how many gospel-centered (particularly Reformed, complementarian, Cross loving) churches are off base and should be done away with; those churches will just keep seeing lives and people give their lives to Jesus.

huh, i’ve been to many an emergent gathering–conferences, cohorts, informal, large, small, medium sized.
the content of the discussions was not around doing away with reformed, complementarian, cross loving churches.
once again, a host of straw men.
(on the side, what is particularly interesting is the implication that complementarianism is somehow central to genuine christian identity. talk about elevating a secondary issue to a first-order litmus test. godly people can disagree.)
i’ve never heard any advocacy of “doing away” with any kind of church.
the discussion is always centered on ways that local communities of christians can most effectively BE the Church in their particular zipcode.
that’s an incredibly PRO-Church position that wants local churches to really see themselves as missionaries to the place that God has put them and to the people God has placed them near.
but then again, if you haven’t really done the work to build the relationships over the years with people involved in the conversation, you wouldn’t know any of that.

to assume that emergent village has an agenda to “do away with” particular churches assumes an arrogance that is most decidedly NOT the issue for emergent.
i’d say that the persistence of attributing motives around “doing away with things” and “wanting to be cool” or “being in rebellion” or any of the silly accusations leveled at emergent says more about its critics than anything else.
in my actual experience i know many a reformed, complementarian who would love to see certain churches/groups just disappear.
“to crooked all things appear crooked”

You missed the point Nathan but thanks for playing.
Your comprehension skills are that of a blogger isolating a phrase and then reading into a whole comment meaning that was not there.
And if you are looking for Emerging church guys who think young Reformed theology/Churches are off base and are an unhelpful trajectory for Christianity then just read the archives on this blog and that of Scot McKnight.
My point was simply that whatever the new bold fresh ideas and and Christologies that EC is forming they are having little effect in making disciples, bring people to true saving faith or seeing lives transformed. For all the hype the EC got a few years ago one would have thought the “conversation” would have led to a Tsunami of change, rather it has been more just a low tide of controversy.

Whoever wrote about size is absolutely correct… Size… Matters!
The Size of your Heart matters for the hurting, the wounded, the forgotten, and the frightened ones who are scared and sick and try to frighten and intimidate others with big bad bully bashing others teaching.
May the Lord convert us from “size of audience who agree with us” to “size of heart for all people”

I think the people attending the conference–and the people in the communities of faith they represent–would disagree that no disciples are being made, nor lives transformed, nor people coming to true saving faith. The whole conference centered on exactly that–how are we to be the church in this place and time? People came away filled with hope and courage and a renewed sense of what it means to follow God in the way of Jesus.

@your name,
why the sarcasm about “playing”?
i’m not a blogger, but i know that seems to be some kind of dirty word or word of insult for people. i don’t get it…
i work full time in a church. our lead pastor is as reformed as reformed could be. he and i have awesome discussions. we love each other. and we both care deeply about people being met by God, changed by God and the particular struggles of our particular zip-code. that’s all the emerging conversation has ever been about for me and all the people i’ve had the privilege of knowing/connecting with.
all the other baggage you lay on the emerging church only helps prove our critique.
why is it wrong to critique “reformed” thought? is it a perfect theological system? are there no holes in it? not the least of which is defensiveness and condescension?
Tim Keller has good words about this attitudinal problem with some in the reformed camp.
He’s only saying much of the same things that i’ve heard from the emerging church.
If people value truth so much, why can’t it be embraced when it actually applies?
Tony and Scot are not emerging “popes”.
They are not our “bishops”.
They are not a magisterium of sorts.
They speak for themselves.That’s the beauty of a conversation.
Nobody in any normal conversation would assume when one person is talking they are speaking for everyone who is hanging out chattting with them.

believing some things in a system of thought are “off base” and “unhelpful” is far different from “doing away with”.
the first is merely a difference of opinion/evaluation.
nothing is wrong with that. why would anyone be threatened by that?
that’s just part of life.

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